Nevada Genealogy Trails Humboldt County M. S. Bonnifield Biography

HON. M. S. BONNIFIELD, of Winnemucca, for a number of years judge of the supreme bench of the state and now actively engaged in the practice of law, is one of the eminent members of the Nevada bar. He is also numbered among the early pioneers of the state, having crossed the plains to the territory in 1862, and his name has since been indissolubly identified with its annals. Mr. Bonnifield was born in West Virginia on the 14th of September, 1833. and it is claimed that the family were originally of French ancestry but had for centuries resided in England. Rhodham Bonnifield, his father, married Miss Mary Minear, a lady of German ancestry, and they removed from West Virginia to Iowa in 1836, in which latter commonwealth they were numbered among the brave and loyal pioneers. They were farming people, and were members of the Methodist Episcopal church. The father passed away in death in 1838. at the age of fifty-four years, and his widow survived him only three months. A son and daughter also passed away within three months of each other, dying of pneumonia. Mr. and Mrs. Rhodham Bonnifield became the parents of fifteen children, five of whom still survive, but M. S. Bonnifield is the only representative of the family in Nevada.

Judge M. S. Bonnifield received his literary education in Allegheny College, of Meadville, Pennsylvania, and after his graduation therefrom was elected president of Richard College, serving in that capacity for one year. Removing to Kansas in 1856, he was there admitted to the bar by the celebrated Judge La Compt, and after practicing his chosen profession in the Sunflower state for two years returned to Ottumwa, Iowa, there resuming his legal duties. In 1861 he crossed the plains to Red Bluff. California, the journey being made with horses, and the long trip was accomplished in three months time. While residing in Meadville, Pennsylvania, in 1855, Mr. Bonnifield had married Miss Laura Ames, and she accompanied him on his removal to the Golden state. In 1862 they came to Humboldt county, Nevada, where for the past forty-one years the Judge has continued to make his home, and throughout this long period he has been constantly engaged in the practice of the law, with the exception of the time spent on the supreme bench of the state. In addition to his large law practice he has also been interested in many mines, one being the celebrated Crown Point mine, in which Hon. J. P. Jones received his vast fortune.

While a resident of Kansas Judge Bonnifield was a prominent Free-soil man, and by that party was elected a member of the Kansas senate. Afterward he allied his interests with the Democracy, and in 1892 became one of the active organizers of the silver party, and is still a stalwart believer in bimetalism. He has represented Humboldt county in two sessions of the state senate, and in 1892 was made presidential elector and was elected to carry the vote of the state to Washington, the three electors casting their ballots engraved on silver plates. In 1895 Mr. Bonnifield was elected judge of the supreme court, having served for six years on the supreme bench of the state, and since retiring from that high office has continued his law practice.

The union of Judge and Mrs. Bonnifield was blessed with three daughters, namely: Emily, the wife of J. A. McBride, of Elko, this state; Delia, who became the wife of J. D. May and resides in Portland, Oregon and Dora, the wife of J. P. Slaughter, of Pueblo, Colorado. Mrs. Bonnifield was called to her final rest in 1887, and two years later, in 1889, Judge Bonnifield married Mrs. Nellie Lovelock, the widow of George Lovelock, Jr., and they reside in one of the delightful homes of Winnemucca. The Judge has taken the degrees in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Workmen and the Chosen Friends, and was made a Master Mason in Iowa in 1885. His religious views are in harmony with the principles of the Methodist Episcopal church.

Source:
A History of the State of Nevada: Its Resources and People
By Thomas Wren, Lewis Publishing Company
Published by The Lewis publishing company, 1904
Contributed by Barbara Z.